Cleaning device for the top comb of combing machines



June 6, 1961 c. LETTERMANN 2,986,779

CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB 0F COMBING MACHINES Filed Sept. 29,1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 6, 1961 c. LETTERMANN 2,986,779

CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB OF COMBING MACHINES Filed Sept. 29,1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB OF COMBINGMACHINES Charles Lettermann, Mulhouse, France, assignor to S- cieteAlsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques, Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France, acompany of France Filed Sept. 29, 1958, Ser. No. 763,975 Claimspriority, application France Oct. 4, 1957 3 Claims. (Cl. 19-116) Thisinvention relates to the cleaning of the top comb of combing machines.This operation essentially consists in removing from the teeth of thetop comb, after each combing operation, the residual noils and dirts.

It is known to use for this cleaning operation devices comprising acleaning blade the active or cleaning edge of which wipes along the combteeth from the roots to the very tips.

Now, such cleaning blades operating from but one side of the comb haveproved insutficient, since some kinds of noils are too light to beeasily torn out under a wiping action exerted only on one face of theteeth, such noils merely yielding under this action to freely protrudeon the other side of the comb between the teeth of the latter.

To overcome this drawback, attempts have heretofore been made to cleanthe comb by means of a double set of :blades operating from its oppositesides. With this type of cleaning device, it has been possible tosuitably extract any kind of noils and dirts by simultaneously acting ontheir protruding parts on both faces of the comb.

Now, it has been demonstrated that matters of tension coupled with theprecise relative position of the comb with relation to the cleaningblades during successive stages of operation are of paramountimportance, not only for successfully effecting the cleaning operation,but also for the purpose of preventing injury to the blades andespecially for preventing wear upon the teeth of the comb which are moreor less delicate in character.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide .a suitablevariation of the tension of the pressure exerted by the blades upon thecomb teeth as well as suitable relative positions of the comb withrelation to the blades during successive stages of operation by mountingthe blades on the feeding gill bar of the combing machine, of which therelative motion with respect to that of the top comb precisely meets therequired conditions.

Unfortunately, new difficulties have arisen, due to the fact that thecleaning blades, after a while, are unavoidably clogged with dirts, sothat they have to be cleaned in turn.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cleaning device of thetype described, wherein the cleaning blades which are normally urgedtowards each other are moved away from each other after each cleaningoperation, so that the dirts or noils may freely fall and thus notremain squeezed between the blades.

Such a device requires a suitable timing, on the one hand, of theoperation of a mechanism adapted to periodically separate the cleaningblades from each other and, on the other hand, of the cycle of therelative displacement of the top comb with respect to the cleaningblades.

Since the cleaning blades are carried by the feeding gill bar, thefunctional motion of the comb and that of the said gill bar aresufficient to ensure the required relative displacement between the comband the cleaning blades, without it being necessary to provide anyadditional means for this purpose.

On the other hand, the cyclic separation of the blades should take placewithout any shock and as smoothly as possible, in particular when thecombing machine is is possible to prevent the blades from being clampedagainst each other as they leave the top comb, so as to" avoid anysqueezing of dirts, which is particularly efli; cacious in the case ofcombing more or less greasy fibres.

operated at a high speed, which is the modern trend in the art.

A further object of the invention is to ensure the cyclic separation ofthe blades by meansof a stopping member which is mounted on a part ofthe combing machine that does not follow the feeding motion of the gillbar, the said stopping member being so arranged as to be interposedbehind the outer cleaning blade before the beginning of the gill barwithdrawal stroke and once the cleaning operation has been completed.

With this arrangement, the separation between the cleaning blades isobtained by the simultaneous displacements, in one direction, of theinner blade as the same follows the gill bar when the latter iswithdrawn and, in the opposite direction, of the active end of the outerblade under tilting of the said outer blade about the active end of thestopping member.

Thus, the separating motion does not give rise to any shock nor anynoticeable friction since the inner blade merely moves freely in spaceand since the outer blade merely oscillates about the pivoting surfaceoffered by the stopping member.

On the other hand, it is interesting to cyclically separate the bladesto an extent sufficient for safely ensuring the drop of any kind ofdirts or noils liable to'be squeezed therebetween.

Now, the magnitude of the gill bar stroke is comparatively reduced (itusually amounts to about 3 mm. in aconventional l-Ieilmann combingmachine), so that the mere withdrawal of the gill bar may happen to beinsufficient for ensuring the required wide separation of the blades.

It is another object of the invention to overcome this drawback withoutintroducing any material friction nor stroke multiplying objectionablestresses.

A more specific object of the invention is therefore to mount thestopping member on the top nipper and to' sodesign the said stoppingmember that during the closing stroke of the said top nipper on thebottom nipper blade and as soon as the cleaning operation is completed,the' said stopping member is smoothly brought into contact with theouter cleaning blade behind the latter alonga continuous motion, whichhowever comprises two steps,

viz. a first step extremely progressive due to the nearly tangentialaction described above of the stopping member on the outer blade and asecond step which does not comprise any shock nor noticeable frictionsince it essentially" takes place by a tilting motion of the outer bladearound the active end of the stopping member.

Still another object of the invention isto make'both steps stillsmoother, by so designing the active end of the stopping member as tofacilitate the oscillation'of the outer blade during the second stepand/ or reduce the? friction of the stopping member on the said bladeduring the first step.

It is to be noted that by a mere suitable choice of the.

arrangement of the stopping member on the top nipper, it

Conversely, it is also possible to delay the cyclic separation of theblades, so that it only takes place after they have been clampedelastically against each other and I atente'a June 6, 1961;

With this arrange after they have left the comb teeth by a certaindistance;

this second mode of working is more adapted to the case of combiningcotton fibres, the noils of which may remain squeezed between the combteeth, so that their ejection requires a tearing action.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be hereinafterdescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings, given merely byway of example.

In these drawings:

FIGS. 1 to 4 show the successive steps of the operation of a cleaningdevice according to the invention and FIG. 5 is a view corresponding toFIG. 4, but showing a more constructive embodiment of the stoppingmember.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the top comb 1 is carried by an arm 2oscillating around a horizontal pivot (not shown). The slivers to becombed are fed into the machine by a feedinggill bar 3. The combing oftheir front ends is ensured by a combing cylinder 4, while the top comb1 ensures the combing of their back ends. While the front ends are beingcombed, the slivers are held stationary by mean of nippers including abottom nipper blade 5 and a top nipper 6 carried by an arm 7 pivotedabout a horizontal axle (not shown).

A first flexible cleaning blade 8, which is called in this specificationthe inner cleaning blade because it is located between the top comb 1and the top nipper 6, is secured at its upper edge on a bracket 9fixedly mounted on the feeding gill bar 3 of the combing machine, thearrangement being such that said inner cleaning blade be brought intocontact with the top comb 1 in the vicinity of the roots of the teethbefore the top comb rises again once its work is completed. The loweredge of the inner blade 8 is fitted, with a strip of leather or plasticmaterial 11. A second cleaning blade 12, which is called in thisspecification the outer blade, disposed on the opposite side of the topcomb 1, is carried by a yoke 13 pivoted around a pivot 14, carried bythe bracket 9 and its lower edge is also fitted with a strip of leatheror plastic material 15. The outer blade is continuously urged towardsthe inner one by a spring 16.

A stopping member 17 is fixedly mounted on the top nipper 6 so as toprevent the wiping edge of the outer blade 12 from following the innerblade 8 as the gill bar 3 is withdrawn (second step of the separatingmotion, which will be described in detail hereinafter).

A pair of flut d rollers 18 and 19 are provided for detaching the combedslivers, while 21 denotes a belt that cooperates therewith.

This device operates as follows:

During the active phase of the top comb cycle, the said top comb standsin its lowermost position and the clean ing blades 8 and 12 are locatedabove the roots of its teeth. The nippers 5, 6 are open and the stoppingmember 17 is far from the outer blade 12.

The combed fibres are then taken away by the rollers 18, 19, whereupon anew feeding cycle begins.

The feeding gill bar 3, and hence the cleaning blades bracketed thereon,move towards the fibre-detaching rollers. The inner blade 8 is broughtinto contact with the comb (Fig. 1) so that the same rises, bothcleaning blades have their Wiping edges operatively engaged with itsteeth, whereby the dirts and noils are scraped away and fall on thecombing cylinder 4. The nippers 5, 6 begin to close again and thestopping member 17 carried by the top nipper begins to wipe smoothlybehind the outer blade 12 along a path to which the latter is nearlytangential (FIG. 2). The nippers 6, 5 complete their closing and thestopping member 17 causes slight tilting of the wiping end of the blade12 outwardly about the pivot 14 up to the position shown in FIG. 3,wherein the blade 12 is held slightly apart from the blade 8 by 4 beingheld against the stopping member 17 due to the action of the spring 16.

The feeding gill bar 3 then withdraws, which results, on the one hand,in moving the inner blade 8 towards the right, as shown in the drawingsand, on the other hand, in withdrawing the pivot 14 and thus tiltingtowards the left the wiping edge of the blade 12. These simultaneousopposed displacements finally move the blades 12 and 8 apart to anextent which is sufiicient for ensuring the drop of any dirts or noilspreviously extracted from the comb teeth.

It is to be noted that, with this cycle, the drop of the dirts and noilscoincides with the combining of the sliver front ends so that they areevacuated together with the noils of these front ends.

In the constructive embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the stopping member,provided for preventing the wiping edge of the outer blade from beingwithdrawn with the gill bar and the inner blade, includes a loose roller23 freely pivoted on a plate 24 adjustably secured on the top nipper arm7 by means of screws 25 passing through elongated holes of the plate 24.

While there is in this application specifically described one form whichthe invention may assume in practice, it will be understood that thisform of the same is shown for purposes of illustration, and that theinvention may be modified and embodied in various other forms withoutdeparting from its spirit or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a combining machine of the type including a top comb mounted forlowering and raising movement during cleaning, nipper means including anipper bottom plate and an alternately closing and opening top nipper, agill bar mounted on said nipper bottom plate and adapted to receive afeeding reciprocating motion with respect to the path of movement ofsaid top comb, a cleaning arrangement for said top comb comprising, incombination, a first flexible cleaning blade having a free cleaning end,a support means fixedly mounting said first blade on said gill bar, sothat said cleaning end can make an angular cleaning engagement with theteeth of said top comb on that side of the latter facing towards saidnipper means, a second flexible cleaning blade having a free cleaningend, means freely pivoting said second blade on said support means formovement toward and away from said first blade, spring meanscontinuously urging said second blade towards said first blade formaking an angular cleaning engagement of the cleaning end of said secondblade with the teeth of said top comb on the side thereof opposite thatengaged by the cleaning end of the first blade, and a stopping memberfixedly mounted on said top nipper and having an active end to engagesaid second blade to slightly tilt said second blade away from saidfirst blade during closing movement of said top nipper, after completionof the cleaning phase fraction of the comb raising stroke and tomaintain contact with said second blade to tilt the same further awayfrom said first blade as said gill bar, said pivot means and said firstblade move away from the path of movement of said top comb.

2. A combing machine as claimed in claim 1, and said second bladenormally extending nearly tangential to the path of movement of theactive end of said stopping member.

3. A combing machine as claimed in claim 1, and said stopping membercomprising a freely rotatable roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS

